Re: [asa] SC Morris piece "Darwin was right. Up to a point."

Hi Andrew,

You might be looking for something far too complex in SCM.

His basic thesis is that if you look at the outcomes of evolution (and his book is mainly a compilation of data which demonstrates the outcomes) then the same sorts of features arise over and over again.

So any argument of the sort:

(1) Evolutionary mechanisms are random (or "contingent"/"unplanned"/"a matter of chance" - whatever)

Therefore;

(2) Humans are a product of a cosmic accident

Is most likely in error.

It's an incredibly simple thesis and "Life's Solution" isn't so much an argument for that thesis as a compilation of data intended to show that evolutionary outcomes are not as unlikely as we might suppose.

I consider it a weighty argument - so much so that it in fact completely overthrows arguments from a priori notions of randomness. In part, you can see why if you consider that getting from 1. to 2. (above) actually requires an unstated assumption that random processes always have random outcomes - and that's just too questionable to be even mildly convincing.

Our Australian science/Christianity organization ISCAST is having SCM as our keynote speaker at our biennial conference in September and have a resource page which might be of interest;

http://www.iscast.org/conway_morris_bio

Blessings,
Murray Hogg

Andrew Wetzel wrote:
> I just purchased SC Morris' book, /Life's Solution/, in order to read
> along at
> http://blog.beliefnet.com/jesuscreed/2009/08/evolutions-place-2-rjs.html.
> Perhaps the discussion there will yield some useful insights.
>
> I think you've hit the question on the nose (guided search, designed
> search space, or something else?), and I'd love to see it answered, and
> possible theological implications explored. Unfortunately, after the
> first twenty pages, it seems to me that concise, clear exposition &
> argument is not Morris's style, and that it may take an inordinate
> amount of work to see if there is sense to be made from his writing....
>
> Happy reading,
>
> Andrew Wetzel
> Reading Circle Books <http://readingcirclebooks.com>
> /Lifelong Learning Together/
> CircleReader on Twitter <http://twitter.com/CircleReader>

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Received on Thu Aug 20 15:14:14 2009